Celebration Day

Finally, 5 years after the concert, the obligatory film of Led Zeppelin's now legendary reunion show on December 10, 2007 is being released on DVD / Blu-Ray. For one day only on October 17th, the concert film (titled Celebration Day) was screened in theaters worldwide.  Amazingly, I can name at least 4 people who are in my iPhone contacts who attended the show. That's a pretty amazing ratio since reportedly 20 million (!) people worldwide entered the lottery to obtain one of the only 18,000 tickets.  Yes, Umlaut saw Celebration Day but rather than me ranting about it I thought it would be more interesting to have someone who saw the concert in person give his reaction to seeing Celebration Day.

John Marshall and I have known each other for 30 years (!) and some of you may know him from his time with Metal Church and his association with Metallica.  John was one of the fortunate few who were in the same room as Led Zeppelin on that cold night in December of 2007.  So, without further ado, here is John's reaction to:

Five years ago I was lucky enough to attend the Coolest Concert Ever: Led Zeppelin at the O2 Arena in London. I have been geeking out on this band for over 30 years.  When I was a teenager I used to take the speakers from my Precor 8-track AM/FM Phonograph stereo, set them on the floor facing each other with a pillow in between them, and put my head on the pillow and lie there listening to 'The Song Remains The Same' over and over again in the dark. Ultra Geeky, right? So after the double punch of missing the 1977 Oakland show and then John Bonham dying in 1980, I figured I would never see them live. And I had accepted that. But as we all know, the Rock Godz work in mysterious ways, and three decades later there I was in the audience in London, worshiping like Geeks do.

Because the concert was delayed from its original date by two weeks, my “date” couldn’t make it and I ended up going by myself. I got to my hotel in London the day before the show and collected my ticket from the folks at Q-Prime, who had an entire hotel suite dedicated to the process of dealing with the guest list. I cradled it like it was Willie Wonka’s last Golden Ticket.

The next afternoon I took The Tube over to the 02 Arena and met up with Big Mick and Paul Owen (Metallica’s longtime sound and monitor engineers) and Big Mick’s brother ("It’s me bruvva!") for a snack and beer before the show. Big Mick had the incredible honor of running the front of house sound for Zeppelin, although he only mixed the band.  Robert Plant had his own longtime sound man, who had his own mixing desk loaded with vocal effects that he could blend in at any time. The dual sound engineer approach seemed a little odd, but the sound during the show was excellent. (Geeky techie note: Plant’s sound guy did miss the echo in 'No Quarter' where he sings “The Winds of Thor are blowing cold"...but funny enough the effect shows up in the movie..).

After Big Mick and beers I made my way to stand in line to get in. Once inside I met up with a mutual friend of Umlaut and I and we sat and watched the arena fill up. The inside of the 02 Arena was awash in a blue glow from the house lighting, and we were mesmerized by the vibe that was happening. The crowd was not the loud rowdy type you’d expect waiting for a show of this magnitude. Instead it was almost a quiet reverence, like the vibe you’d expect when you know you are about to witness history. It’s a feeling I’ll never forget.

When show time got closer I made my way to my assigned seat. I soon realized that I was in the same section as the music industry insiders. Several rows in front of me I could see Mensch and Burnstein and the Q Prime crowd. My seat was right on the aisle and pretty soon a Who’s Who of Rock started cruising by, making their way down to their seats. Suddenly Brian May walked right past me... Holy shit! Of course I froze up, and couldn’t say anything. Damn! However I did say hello to Randy Johnson, who I had met years earlier in Seattle at a Metallica show. He is 6”10” tall and it’s a rare thing when I have to look up at someone when I talk to them.

The opening acts were good, and the heartfelt tributes to Ahmet Ertegun flowed freely; it was mostly a blur though. I couldn’t focus, and I’m pretty sure my heart rate stayed up for almost two hours straight, knowing what was to come. It’s funny, because normally big acts like that (Bill Wyman, Paul Rodgers, and Albert Lee among them) would be enjoyable, but I really didn’t give a shit. 

After the opening acts as the stage was cleared for Zeppelin, the tarps on the backline were pulled back, and there it was: Jimmy Page’s 4x12 cabinet with the Zoso logo on it. It started to sink in: This was fucking real! Finally the house lights went down, the crowd roared, and a short film started. It was about the show they played in Tampa in 1973 that set the record for the largest audience (at the time) for a Rock show. Then 'Good Times Bad Times' came thundering in and the place became alive. It was exciting, electric, and overwhelming. I was trying to watch, and trying to take pictures and video all at the same time and failing miserably. It was during the second song ('Ramble On') when it all hit me hard, and tears started streaming down my face. All the years of Geekdom, listening, absorbing this music and here it was finally coming back to me live. I have never been so moved by music, and probably never will again.

Fast forward to this week and a movie of the Coolest Concert Ever was in theaters for one night only and the DVD comes out in November. How cool is that? Recorded for posterity in full 5.1 Dolby Digital Surround sound! A friend from work is a fellow Zep Geek, so we decide to make an evening of it with our spouses and met up at the local brew house across the street from the theater. I wasn’t sure what to expect with this movie; I have vivid memories of sitting in line outside the Park Theater in El Sobrante, surrounded by pot smoke and beer, waiting for the midnight showing of The Song Remains the Same. But this was not 1977. 

We got inside the theater about 20 minutes before the film started, but there was no pot, no beer, and no line. In fact, there were only maybe 25 or so people in the whole theater! A few more people trickled in as we waited, but right before the movie was set to start an employee came into the theater to apologize, saying that there’s been a delay. He told us that they have been on the phone to London trying to get an e-mail sent with a digital license key that will allow their computer to play the downloaded movie! This is definitely NOT 1977! 

He entertained us for a few minutes, apologizing profusely and complaining that the lack of advertising for the film was the reason there was nobody there, while promising to cut out the trailers. Finally his radio crackled that it was all set to go and someone told him to “Turn it up!” 

He obliged quite nicely.

When the movie started, I was transported right back to 5 years ago in London and to the 30 years before that. It’s the same killer music, so familiar that it feels like it’s wired to my DNA. After seeing the concert in London, I had gone back to the hotel and scribbled down some notes, just to try and remember the show. A lot of that came flooding back as I watched the movie. 

Something I realized is just how much of Zeppelin’s music is drawn from the Blues, and just how much those Blues roots shone through in the set that they played. It seems obvious now, but I’d never noticed it until I saw them live. Zeppelin do what every great band does: They take their influences and twist them into something unique and completely original ('Black Mountain Side' notwithstanding). Plant introduced 'Trampled Underfoot' as their version of Robert Johnson’s 'Terraplane Blues' (which it is), and he introduced their version of 'Nobody’s Fault But Mine' as an old spiritual sung in Black churches in the early 1930’s (which it is). Over the years they have been labeled as Rock, Acid Rock, Heavy Metal, etc. but on that night in London they were a Blues band on steroids. 

For being the biggest Rock Stars on the planet, their onstage demeanor was remarkably subdued and that’s what makes them so cool. They’re not standing up there with their toes on the front edge of the stage, shoving guitar solos and wicked screams down the audience’s throat, which seems required today. They just stood together in front of the drum riser, playing songs and playing music for the audience. Fucking. Great. Music. Just like Back In The Day, when music was the show, not the vehicle for the show. Kids these days just don’t know. 

Watching the band at the concert, I felt like they were a little apprehensive and somewhat overwhelmed by the hugeness of the day. But this didn’t come across in the movie. In fact, something I didn’t see at the concert is just how much they smiled at each other, they truly seemed to be relaxed and enjoying themselves, although many of those smiles seemed to be because of how truly kickass Jason Bonham was. Every killer drum fill brought a reaction from Plant or Page. He brought all the vibe, timing and thunder of his dad and did it with class and style. RAWK. 

Thankfully this movie is nothing like The Song Remains The Same. There are no fantasy sequences, no interviews, no out-of-sync video, and no commentary. Celebration Day is literally just the concert (although there will be an extras DVD). During the movie I kept going between the music geek and the techie geek in me, looking for weird edits or stuff that were changed or left out. There is one bit missing from the film that happened at the concert:  Right before 'Misty Mountain Hop', when Plant says what a great singer Jason Bonham is and tells him to sing a little. At the show Jason responded with the vocal intro to 'I Can’t Quit You Baby' and the place went nuts! I kept waiting for it in the movie, and it wasn’t there. Other than that there seems to be minimal editing, and for the most part the movie is seamless. You feel like you’re watching the concert as it happened, and no song was left out nor was the sequence changed.

The set list was as good as it could have been, because there are so many great songs to choose from. Funny enough, the one song that stuck in my head the whole next day was 'For Your Life', one that Zeppelin had never played live before. (Funny concert note: During 'Since I’ve Been Loving You', Marilyn Manson and his girlfriend got up and went to get a beer or take a leak or something. Are you serious? I had to pee too, but I held it!) 'Black Dog' was earthshaking. 'Nobody’s Fault But Mine' was brutal. I was glad that 'Stairway' was NOT the featured closer.  That spot fell to 'Kashmir' and it was perfect.  In fact it was EPIC and the best way to end the main set. Ultimately the movie was just what I had hoped it would be: A great concert by a great band captured for all to relive. 

Two of my earliest teenage band crushes were Led Zeppelin and KISS. They both had that mystique and aura, the kind that makes you elevate them in your mind to the mythical status of Rock Star Gods.  The kind that makes you want to play your guitar for endless hours to imitate them. There aren’t any Rock Stars anymore because there’s no mystery.  Back then we had to invent everything, create it all based on the few pictures and lyrics that came with the liner notes of the album  (In fact, for many years Zeppelin didn’t do a lot of press and they purposely didn’t put pictures, song titles, or even the band;s name on their album covers). Nowadays we have videos, MTV Cribs, the Internet and reality TV to spoil all of that and bring our heroes down to the status of the mere mortals that they really are. Ever since KISS took their makeup off in 1983, their mythical status has fallen and Gene Simmons has been beating that dead horse ever since.  However, Led Zeppelin still have it and for me they always will. And while in the past 3 decades I’ve been exposed to the inner workings of the music biz and all of the mystery of it has been stripped away, Led Zeppelin are still my heroes and unspoiled by it all. 

When we got home after the movie, I was still wound up, so I sat down and started flipping channels on the TV. Sure enough, there was The Song Remains The Same playing on one of the music channels. I sat and watched it for a few minutes, somewhat shocked at how young Zeppelin looked, but remembering just how great the music was. The song remains the same, indeed.

This is the copy of the hardcover program from the 2007 Zeppelin show that John scored for Umlaut.  James Hetfield once attempted to "steal" it from me.  True story.

Eye Of The Beholder

The exciting companion piece to No Sleep 'Til San Francisco!

Umlaut's old friend John Marshall has a long personal and professional history with Metallica. Here is his perspective on Cleveland from The Red Carpet and VIP Tables:

For me this incredible journey started almost exactly 26 years ago—the week of April 1st, 1983, when my friend Kirk got the call to fly out to New York to audition for Metallica. At the time, he thought it may have been some kind of big prank, an April fool’s joke or something. That’s obviously NOT what it was. What it was, was the start of something so huge and amazing that it still boggles my mind.

I don’t want to say that Metallica being inducted into the RRHOF is a “culmination” of the last 26 years, because that makes it sound like an ending. It’s more of a stepping stone, another launch point for Metallica to continue their career long after many said they couldn’t. One thing I’ve learned from being around Metallica is that their milestones—first gold record, first Grammy, first sold out tour, first platinum record, etc. are not high points or endings—they are merely rungs in a ladder that is allowing them to continue to climb higher and higher. And I just don’t see the top rung yet. I don’t think there is one.

One of the things that I keep thinking about is how wrong the public’s perceptions of Metallica truly can be. Living your life under the microscope of public scrutiny is incredibly difficult. Our society pokes and prods at our celebrities, then passes judgment on them based on their reactions. ‘Some Kind Of Monster’ was an unflattering look at these guys at one of the lowest point of their lives, yet that is all people choose to remember of them. Some of the silly common misconceptions about Metallica -- that they are rock star assholes, they tour with a psychiatrist, etc. -- are so blatantly wrong that it’s ridiculous. I’m not naïve, I am aware of the realities of stardom and public perception, but trust me—unless you KNOW Metallica, what you think you know about them is probably untrue. Nothing proves that point more than this weekend.

OK, enough of the analyzing — this weekend was absolutely incredible! Umlaut has already provided many details, which I will avoid repeating here (I would also highly recommend reading Steffan’s account here: http://www.metallica.com/index.asp?item=602170). Instead, I will just give as many of the good points as I can remember:

I got the call from Kirk in January, saying “keep that weekend open”. I immediately asked him if my wife could join me, and he said yes. As April approached, it dawned on me that I was probably the only one of the invited guests that was allowed to bring a friend or spouse, on Metallica’s dime. This fact has not been forgotten……

Flight 254:


Umlaut > Ian Kallen > John > Ron Quintana

In the weeks leading up to April 3rd, I started to have visions of this flight being like the now-legendary booze-soaked flight to Moscow that had both Ozzy’s and Motley Crue’s band and crews on board. But in the end it was like any other flight, with the exception of getting to meet up with old friends. Stories and memories started flying as soon as we reached the gate and sat down to wait to board the plane. Ian pleaded Post Traumatic Stress Disorder when I reminded him about our “Bowling With Yngwie” adventure, claiming he didn’t remember any of it. Must still be giving him nightmares. Apparently all of his Yngwie memories are like that.

The Party:

The party was almost a direct continuation of the flight, seeing more and more faces and friends I hadn’t seen in literally two decades or more. Trading war stories with Dave Marrs, Metallica’s first drum tech was a high point. Dave, Mark Whittaker and myself were the crew from the fall of ’83 until March of ’84, when the band started recording Ride The Lighting. Other fellow crew members in attendance: Gem Howard, the tour manager from the Feb. ’84 European tour with Venom. Andy Battye, James’ guitar tech for years. Ian Jeffries and Jake Berry, tour manager and stage manager from the ’92 tour when I played. Tony Smith, assistant tour manager from ’92 who later became tour manager. I still keep in touch with Tony, a super gentleman. John Broderick, Lighting Director for many years; he still does light design (the Death Magnetic show is his), but doesn’t tour. Bobby Schneider, who started as a drum tech on Ride The Lightning and ended up as tour manager on Master Of Puppets. Somber note: Bobby was the one who told me “Cliff’s gone, man” (something I had assumed, but hadn’t absorbed yet) as we lay on stretchers while nurses fussed over us in the emergency room at a hospital in Sweden in Sept. of ’86.

I didn’t get the chance to say hello to my old friend Jimmy Page, but since we’d been holed up together in a studio in London for the last month (he asked me to help him write some material for the new Zeppelin release........), I thought it best to let him mingle with some other people for a while.....

More fun: explaining to my wife the difference between the two Brians I had just been speaking to: Brian Schroeder, a.k.a. Pushead, and Brian Sagrafena, the drummer from Echobrain, Jason’s first post-Metallica project.


Pushead > Brian Sagrafena > John

Metal Joe and Ray Dill from the Old Bridge Militia — many war stories from Metal Joe’s house, Command Central for Metallica for the end of ’83/early ’84. Stories from that place are probably best kept under wraps! Hanging with Ron McGovney, a way cool dude. Ron kept reminding me of the time when I drove with James to L.A. to visit the Jackson Guitar factory to pick up a guitar in my “piece of shit little car”. That night there was a party at Ron’s old house, one that was about to be razed. Nothing more fun than throwing a bowling ball through a wall! For the record—the car was a 1974 sky blue Ford Pinto station wagon with no heater. Hey man, Yngwie Malmsteen rode in that car too!

As the night wore on I tried to find as many people as I could that I knew and say hello to them. I think I did well. The vibe was loose, open and happy. The fact that this would never happen again was what made it special.

To quote Umlaut, it was a fucking GREAT party.

The Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame:

I don’t believe in the RRHOF. I must echo Umlaut's sentiment that it’s a lot like the music industry patting itself on the back. I mean, having a place to show old rock and roll mementos is cool, I guess. Maybe it’s just the name—“Hall Of Fame” sounds like stats and wins and losses and such. Call it something else please.

After looking for breakfast in the wicked cold of a ghost town that is downtown Cleveland (and finding only shopping mall food court crap), we headed to the HOF. Because of the induction-day free entrance fee, there was a long line waiting to get in. While waiting in line we spotted on the ground a rusty old safety pin ("Living in sin with a safety pin! Cleveland Rocks!"). Once we got in it was obvious that wasn’t going to be a leisurely, enjoyable stay. There was a crowd 2 and 3 bodies deep at each exhibit. We did see an interesting short film about songwriting, but that was about the only thing we wanted to stay for. (One note—Cliff’s red Rickenbacker and James’ Explorer touched a nerve... I used to tune, restring and care for those instruments, and now they’re being put on display like icons of history! Mind boggling.) So we left.

The Induction Dinner and Ceremony:

In our best black-tie outfits (and man, we looked GOOD) we hopped the shuttle from the hotel at about 5pm to head to the Public Hall for the Cocktail Party and Induction dinner. We were dropped off at a tented entrance that turned out to be the red carpet—as in THE red carpet, lined on either side with paparazzi for about 150 feet leading into the building. When the photogs realized that we were nobodies (which was pretty much instantly) they promptly ignored us. We walked the carpet into the building and got our table assignment.



Also seated at Table 74: Johnny and Marcia Zazula, Ron McGovney, Scott Ian, Charlie Benante, Jim Martin, Steff and Vickie from the MetClub, and Metal Maria. The conversations were varied—from discussing with Scott and Charlie what songs Metallica might play (we all thought “Trapped Under Ice” would be cool, but I thought 'Escape' might just be Metallica’s way of spicing up the event), to discussing with Jim Martin the intricacies of growing championship pumpkins and tomatoes. The food was pretty damn good—chicken and tenderloin of beef, with mashed potatoes and veggies. Being diabetic, I tried not to eat the “giant chocolate tower thing”, but failed miserably. It was stunningly good. Each seated guest also received a goodie bag, complete with a program, HOF baseball cap, HOF journal (which I called a “dairy” in a harried text to Umlaut), and a CD with music from each inductee (the Metallica tracks are 'Enter Sandman', 'Nothing Else Matters', and... 'Fade To Black'!?). It was a bit unnerving eating dinner while the public filled the seats above us, but I was OK with it. I had friends up there. Someone commented that it was like being monkeys in a zoo, to which someone else replied—“Does that mean we can throw poo at them?”



A couple of good points of the show: I was really impressed by Little Anthony and the Imperials. I’m not sure what it was — maybe it was because they were the first act that performed, but they were good. Real good. Rosanne Carter’s speech was funny, especially the jokes about Wanda Jackson and her father. I was floored to hear some of the keyboard parts that Spooner Oldham had recorded—I had no idea! Some of the best musicians ARE the sidemen and session cats.

Jeff Beck — the film intro to Jeff Beck’s induction had one of the funniest moments of the evening — as the film jumped between interviews and moments of Beck’s history, it suddenly cut to the dressing room scene in 'Spinal Tap’ where Nigel Tufnel is admonishing Marti DiBergi — “Don’t point at that guitar, don’t even look at it!” Funny! The Jeff Beck/Nigel Tufnel connection has been cemented in history! After being inducted by Jimmy Page, Beck came out with his band and roared into ‘Beck’s Bolero’. As the sound of his guitar filled the auditorium, it was like “THERE it is!” I’ve been listening to THAT guitar for decades, and it was like a familiar old blanket…just amazing. Then Page came back onstage with a guitar and they went into ‘The Immigrant Song’, before jumping back into ‘Beck’s Bolero’. What’s cool is that Page played rhythm guitar on the original recording of 'Beck’s Bolero' over 40 years ago, and here they were doing it again. Way Cool.

The choice of Flea to induct Metallica seemed at first to be way off… but his speech was HAPPENING. It was very articulate with an almost hippy-like twist, interspersed with phrases like “violent beauty” and “Metallica fucking ROCKS!!!!” I welled up with tears when he talked about Cliff Burton. I don’t think anyone could have done it better than Flea. It was perfect.

The speeches were all good—more tears during Ray Burton’s speech. And again when Kirk thanked his brother for the guitar when he was an “angry confused young teen”. James’ dedication to the people “stuck in an image”, daring them to fail, was good.

The song choices of 'Master Of Puppets' and 'Enter Sandman' were perfect, I thought. Those two songs probably best represent the band’s entire career, and having both Rob and Jason playing them was the only way it could have been done properly.

The hugest moment of the evening for me came during the all-star jam at the end. As I was watching ‘Train Kept a-Rollin’ I realized that my friend Kirk was up there with Page, Beck, Ron Wood and Joe Perry— four of our biggest heroes! It took me back to Kirk’s bedroom more than 30 years ago, where we used to play that song and dream of bigger things. By the end of it tears of pride and joy were flowing big time.



There was a large portion of the crowd that didn’t react when Metallica was playing --- and it brought home a point for me. To quote Flea, Metallica is still “outsider music”, and I think it always will be. They will never fit into the establishment. I mean, one listen to the first track off of Death Magnetic will confirm that. I could just imagine many people in the audience thinking, “Oh so THAT’s who Metallica are, THAT’s what they sound like.” They’d probably heard of them but never bother to check them out—and after this night they will probably never listen to Metallica again. And that’s what makes this whole thing great—is that as we grow older it’s still cool to like Metallica. Much like in ’82-’86 when they were the best underground band that no one had ever heard of, they are still the best underground band that everyone’s heard of. Hope that makes sense….

Without my connection to Metallica, I can easily say that I would be living somewhere else, doing something else. They have literally, unequivocally changed my life. Seeing them at this level is just incredible for me. And as with pretty much every part of my life that is connected to Metallica, this event was truly one-of-a-kind and special.

Random Rock Star Moment: The Coal Miner's Daughter

The Coal Miner's Daughter! For reasons unknown, this post was ready to go almost a year ago, but I never published it... Sorry about that John... better late than never, right?

Submitted by John Marshall:

One of the coolest things I have.....!



I didn’t actually meet her -- I was dealing with her steel player and he had it signed for me.

For the newbies, click HERE for all of the installments in Umlaut's ongoing Random Rock Star Moment series.

Let's Do The Time Warp Again - Part One

1980 Revisited: For Umlaut (and many of his friends) this was a landmark gig:


Fast forward to the 21st Century and both Cheap Trick and the Michael Schenker Group were playing within 24 hours of each other. Let's do the time warp again...

Cheap Trick
Marin-Sonoma Fair, Petaluma, CA
June 22, 2007

Although Cheap Trick were the forbidden fruit that set me on my righteous path to Music Geekdom, I haven't seen them live in 10 years.. but nothing could have prepared me for this epic night.

Over a pre-gig dinner, Umlaut and friends John Marshall and Vickie talked about circles of life and how often we experience them; people or events from years past that continue to influence our lives to this day. The conversation turned out to be a profound omen, as a circle that started for Umlaut back in 1978 was completed on this night in Petaluma... When I was 15 years old I could not have imagined this:


While chatting with Robin Zander the fanboy switch accidentally went off in my head and I kinda lost it and gushed:

"MYFIRSTCONCERTWASYOUGUYSWITHBLUEOYSTERCULTIN1978!"

I immediately felt like a complete dork... and other Rock Stars might have started to slowly back away from me at this point while signaling their bodyguards to take me down.. but Robin's reply was something like:

"WOW!! Well, you know, we're still the same 4 guys playing the same 3 chords..."

He was such a nice, cool guy.. Later, I thought that maybe that was his standard reply when confronted by fanboys like me.. but I'd like to think not.

Thankfully my fanboy switch returned to the *off* position and I didn't gush to Rick how I had a sweater in 1978 like the one he wore onstage and covered it with Cheap Trick buttons... Ohhhh... errr... did I just say that? Oookayy... just ignore that... let's move on...

From the Umlaut Archives

Man, CT were so fucking great; they're still great musicians and a band with more onstage charisma than a dozen 21st Century bands combined... AND they played 'Oh Candy'! After 'Big Eyes', Rick took off the guitar he had played during the song and handed it to someone in the front row ala Green Day on their 2005 Tour and The Hellacopters on their 2006 Tour. Yeah, it was only a cheapie $200 axe but it was still cool. Don't be such a jaded mofo!

I was having 'Nam-like flashbacks to my teenage years watching Tom Petersson wield his 12-string bass from up close. Dude, 12-strings... He lays down a wall of bottom end equivalent to 3 normal bassists! You can't defend yourself against firepower of that magnitude... and Bun E. was wearing a long sleeve Metal Shoppe shirt! Metalheads will know what I mean; wasn't that store in Salt Lake City?

My personal favorite song of the set was 'Auf Wiedersehen', which was unbelievably smoking.. However, a close second was 'Surrender' featuring Rick playing his 5-neck guitar.. and YES they still throw a KISS vinyl album cover out into the crowd during the song.. I wonder where they get those album covers these days?? Discuss amongst yourselves. However, the best part of the night was the name checks CT gave to John Marshall and Vickie from the stage!

Long story short, Vickie has a lot of history with CT; how often are you with someone who's greeted by Rock Stars with the question "How's your mom?".. Mommy's alright, Daddy's alright. Later during the show, Rick jokingly introduced 'If You Want My Love' as the song "Vickie Strate wrote..." and I turned to her and said "You did!??".. and then later in the set during 'I Want You To Want Me' he walked over to our side of the stage and pointed at Vickie. So fucking hilarious!

Also, prior to the show, both Rick and Robin remembered seeing John and his old band Metal Church... and ironically one of the stagehands / roadies was wearing a vintage Metal Church shirt! Circle of life, man. Later during the show, Rick pointed John out to the crowd and asked "What was your band again.. Metal Gonads? No.. Metal Church!".. and told the crowd that if they needed guitar lessons they should see John... and then during the following song he walked over to our side of the stage, hit a chord, held up his vintage Flying-V, and pointed at John. So fucking awesome!

To top it off, Rick did his trademark gesture of throwing handfuls of guitar picks into the crowd.. Near the end of the set he showered our side of the audience with picks but I couldn't catch one... However, one landed inside Vickie's shirt, which she retrieved and handed to me. So fucking hilarious!!



This might end up being my favorite concert of 2007.. Iggy's 60th Birthday show was amazing, but this gig was really, really personal for Umlaut... I was tripping out on so many levels the entire evening. THANKS to Vickie for enabling my Inner Teenage Music Geek by introducing me to the first Lock 'N Loll Heroes I ever had. What a trip.

If you bought one of every Cheap Trick merch item you would have paid around $205. On the way back to the car, some pimply-teenagers called us fags. I'm hard pressed to think of the last time I smiled so much during a concert; my face was almost hurting afterwards. F-U-N!

From the Cheap Trick Fan Club Newsletter - 1979

Cheap Trick are the only "old" band I can think of that nobody is cynical about; everyone still gets gushy about them when they come up in conversation. Straight up: They still rule. I'm not kidding when I say that, at least for this week, CT are my all-time favorite band. Sorry Iron Maiden.

Then 24 hours later I was watching the Michael Schenker Group hit the stage... and the time warp continued; it's just a jump to the left and then a step to the right.

To be continued.....

Matching Gear

These pics are courtesy of our good friend John.. Long story short, John helped a certain Rock Star build a custom guitar amp to match the Rock Star's custom car. The car and amp were displayed at the San Francisco Rod, Custom, and Motorcycle Show in January and the car won a prize. Yayy for The Rock Star!




Thanks John!

The Rock Star? Let's just say that if I told people who it was I'd have to kill 'em all.

A Cougar In The Desert?!

Umlaut's old friend John Marshall fought The Metal Wars from the trenches... AND he was stalked by a cougar in the desert! All in the name of M-E-T-A-L....

Metal Church - 'Badlands' video (1989)

===
Added 9/12/06

Behind The Making Of The Video
by John Marshall

We shot the 'Badlands' video after the fourth gig of the Blessing In Disguise tour. After playing The Roxy in LA, we took the tour bus overnight to the desert outside of Palmdale, waking up on the bus in the middle of a dry lake bed-- nothing around for miles. It had been a late, fun night (as gigs in L.A. usually are), and it was already hot when we started filming at about 10 that morning. Ugh. Nothing worse than hot weather combined with a hangover.

The big cat had arrived in a cage in the back of a pickup truck, along with a small menagerie of other animals. In the video you can see a snake on Mike's arm, and a lizard on the cross behind the drum kit, just hanging out. Nothing like live animals to add an air of realism to your video! We spent some downtime feeding the cat raw chicken, bones and all. Fun! Just don't put your fingers in the cage......

The big event of the morning happened even before we started filming. At some point while setting up, the keeper of the animals decided to move his truck. He fired it up and promptly rolled it, cat and all, right over the $15K audio/video synced playback machine. Luckily the cameras were not involved, but that meant that we had to "lip sync" to..... a cheap boombox sitting on the desert floor. Now, the drums had rubber pads on them to keep them quiet, but even the "thwack" of those pads essentially drowned out the little 1 speaker boombox. To make matters worse, the boombox had to sit more than 20 feet away from us so that it wouldn't be in the shot. But we were professionals, and we rose above it in true rock and roll fashion: we would listen to a couple of bars to get the tempo, then start "playing" while the cameras rolled.

Sometime in the afternoon we got back on the bus and headed to San Pedro to film the night shots. When we arrived, the setup was the polar opposite of the morning's festivities-- under a freeway out near the oil refineries, was a full on movie set! There was catering, a full sound system for playback, crew people scurrying around, lights and more lights, even a make-up trailer. It was great fun to feel like a movie star for a few hours (although it would suck to do it for a living)! The filming was awesome: full volume playback, amp stacks and fire pits in the background, and the director shouting at us to bang harder! Way Cool. After the filming was done we did a photo shoot, and at about midnight our day had come to and end. We hopped back on the bus and promptly crashed out for a ride to Tucson for a gig the next night.

A few things I remember when seeing this video-- It was a really cool time for me because I had joined a band on a major label, recorded an album, and was on the road as a musician-- not a roadie (ahem, excuse me, guitar technician). I also remember the song 'Badlands' with some trepidation... because of some crappy meaningless internal band politics, I never played on the original recording. Not one note. Fucking Bullshit. But hey, I'm not bitter! Last: I miss that black Les Paul Standard. It was a guitar that my friend Dan Watson had owned when we were in high school. I'll get it back someday.

Good Times.

Random Rock Star Moment #13: Lonn Friend

The exciting sequel to Marshall Stack!

I mentioned "in another space" that I was reading Lonn Friend's book Life On Planet Rock. This resulted in another excellent Lock 'N Loll war story from Umlaut's old friend John Marshall Stack.

My Lonn Friend story:

When we were recording Metal Church's "The Human Factor", Metallica was literally a mile up the road in Burbank recording the Black album. It was cool because we got to hang with them, shoot pool, etc. One day Kirk and I went to Lonn Friend's office in L.A. to see him. When we got into his office Lonn was deep in phone conversation with Axl Rose, and I was looking for a place to sit down. The only chair available had 3 or 4 gold record plaques in it-- not the small ones, but the full size ones. I think they were in the chair because his walls were already covered top to bottom with other gold, silver and platinum records. Anyway, there was enough space to sit on the front edge of the chair, (so long as I didn't lean back too far), so I did.

As we were sitting there, Axl starts playing Lonn some of the new Gn'R music over the phone (I think the song may have been "November Rain"). Without telling Axl, he puts it on speakerphone so we can hear it. As I'm getting comfortable, I lean back slightly in the chair.... until I hear a loud CRACK! from behind me. I quickly look up and realize that neither Kirk nor Lonn have heard the sound, so I calmly lean forward again. For the next few minutes, I'm sweating bullets...... how bad is the damage? As we finally get up to leave, I take a quick look at the plaque I had leaned on, and didn't see any cracks....WHEW! I snuck away, afraid of what might have happened to the plaques underneath.

Once we got out of the office, I told Kirk, and he just about laughed himself to death.

My Lonn Friend story.

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Last week Umlaut noticed these pics of John with Metallica (from the 1992 U.S. Stadium Tour with Guns 'N Poses) on photographer Ross Halfin's web site:

Enter night, exit light... Click HERE for more Marshall Stack war stories.

Marshall Stack

Umlaut's old buddy John Marshall rehearses with Metallica during the 1992 stadium tour with Guns 'N Roses:



Umlaut saw the tour at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena and it was badass seeing John in front of 90,000 people. Motörhead opened the show but Metallica ruled the day by far, despite Guns 'N Roses having Andrew Dice Clay perform a comedy set before they came out.

Highlights: Chatting with John and James at the band's swank Hollywood hotel... And a packed stadium chanting "Die, Die, Die!" during 'Creeping Death' as LAPD riot cops marched down the center aisle of the stadium to ensure crowd control.

Lowlights: Lars whining to the band's tour manager at their swank Hollywood hotel... And me getting bumped out of a limo ride to the show by an English reporter from NME.

Good times.

1986 Revisited

May 1986... The heavy hitters of 80's "Alternative" Rock certainly came through The Fillmore.. Especially on the 3rd, 10th, and 29th.

(From the Timo Archives)

A year earlier Umlaut was still into Metal. It's weird how a year can sometimes change everything. In 1986 I went back to college to give it "another go" (as The Brits say), and I soon fell in with a whole new group of Music Geeks.. and this is where my head was at: 80's Indie / College / Rockabilly / Alternative guitar stuff. I saw Bob Dylan and Neil Young for the first times that year too.

My most vivid memory from that year seems to be seeing Camper Van Beethoven at some weird, short-lived club next door to a movie theater in a San Jose strip mall. I don't remember the name of the place, but the space literally looked like someone's living room with the band set up on the floor in front of a fireplace.

I was sick and had taken NyQuil or some other cold remedy... Of course, I did the smart thing (since I had gone back to college) and got a pint of beer at the bar. When the show began my head was spinning like a hippie chick at a Dead show from the cold remedy and alcohol. I ended up sitting in the middle of the floor and watched peoples' feet as Camper played 'Sad Lovers Waltz'. Whenever I hear that song now it takes me right back to that floor and that moment.

I was WAY into Lone Justice in 1986 too (Lone Justice w/ Steve Earle = Fookin' gleat..). Good times.

Anyway, now all of Umlaut's Old Metal bruthas and sistahs know where I was after I disappeared from the S.F. Metal Scene.....

BUT here's something else you didn't know: In March 1985 I COMPLETELY betrayed Metal and saw Prince on the Purple Rain Tour! (cue stunned silence.....)

I could blame it on the girl who asked me to go, but no one forced me.. The things you will do for chicks when you're young... Prince played 6 sold out shows at the Cow Palace. In hindsight, I'm glad I saw that concert.. Tics were only $17.50 too. "Wear Purple" (I didn't).

Two weeks later I was seeing Metallica / Armored Saint again as if nothing had happened. And a week after that I was seeing Iron Maiden again as if nothing had happened!

I looked all of my Metal friends in the eyes (including Cliff Burton) and they suspected NOTHING. I was a fucking poser in their midst! HA!!! So now you know. Shocking, innit?!

"Two thousand zero zero party over, ooops out of time.."

"Fight fire with fire, we all shall die..."

"Two minutes to midnight, the hands that threaten doom..."

Postscript: If anyone taped the 2004 VH1 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony let me know. I need Prince performing 'While My Guitar Gently Weeps' with Jeff Lynne, Tom Petty, and George Harrison's son Dhani. His guitar solo was fucking GREAT. I shit you not.


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John and Umlaut have known each other over 20 years... Old Metal Bruthas... or so I always thought!!! Who knew that back in 1985, when John was a member of the Metallica road crew and Umlaut was a Metal "journalist" / geek, that we shared a poser secret involving Prince... FAWKIN' HILARIOUS!!

JOHN MARSHALL: I too must profess that at one time I had a (semi) secret admiration for Prince. I think he's a fantastic songwriter, a great performer and all around great musician. I've seen Purple Rain more than once. I don't remember when or how I got exposed to Prince, but there was a time when I didn't like him. We used to call him "Prance" just to make fun of him in a Heavy Metal sort of way. He had all those extravagant costumes, spiked high heels, and chicks dug him. Something changed, though, when I heard Purple Rain -- it's just a great album. I lost interest again after Purple Rain, but for a while I was WAY into it.

Anyway, in 1985 I was actually able to go to the First Avenue Club (where Purple Rain was filmed) in Minneapolis, when Metallica played there on the Ride The Lightning Tour. It was pretty cool, to walk through the club and recognize the balconies and the stage from the movie! (The dressing rooms were a different story-- these tiny little boxes were NOT the dressing rooms from the movie). It was a small, but significant "geek" moment for me......much like playing Hammersmith Odeon in London or Red Rocks in Denver.

Thought for the day: Remember when Prince was the weirdo and Michael Jackson was the genius?

UMLAUT: On the way back to the 21st Century, some pimply-faced Metalheads called John and I fags.

"This is what it sounds like when doves cry.."

"Die by my hand, I creep across the land..."

DRUNK TED: I'm sure you've heard all the stories about Prince being a prick in person though. Kevin Smith has a great one on his spoken word DVD.

At this Irish Pub I go to, there's this guy who does lights for bands. He was hired to go on tour with Prince. At the beginning of the tour, he was told under no uncertain terms that he was not to talk to Prince. At all. Well first day of work, he was walking down a small backstage corridor and Prince was coming the other way with his entourage. The lighting guy moved out of the way and said "Excuse me.". A few hours later, he was fired for "talking" to Prince!!!

Oh, may I be the thousandth person to call you a "fag". Ha ha!

JOHN MARSHALL: Yeah, I've heard about Prince's attitude problem. Being in the guitar amp business, I heard a story once that His Holiness had received a sweet, brand new purple leather (natch! to quote Umlaut) guitar amp.

After a short while, it came back thrashed all to Hell, with holes in the speaker grille that looked suspiciously like they had been made by a spiked high heel. I guess the amp had a problem with a tube (as tube amps sometimes do), and he let fly with the kung fu dance moves.

Needless to say, I don't think he uses that brand of guitar amps anymore.

Prince Who?

RICH LAMINATE: I remember Gary and Rick from Exodus telling me they had been to see Prince on the Purple Rain tour and said he was simply ridiculously talented. There must have been some purple stuff in the water in S.F..

I used to be pretty good friends with Price's security guy. We were telling funny tour stories one day when he advised me that Prince would not sleep in a hotel bed, so he had a truck that used to carry his bed / mattress and crew guys who would go to each hotel and set up Prince's sleeping goodies....

He also confirms Drunk Ted's story about talking to Prince. It does go even further: Prince did not like anyone looking at him. I, of course, asked the question about what one would do if stuck in an elevator with his Royal Majesty and the answer was very matter of fact. If you were in his employ, you would be obligated to turn and stare at the wall..... Whatever floats your boat....

Sweet Savage

Only around 5 or 6 readers will appreciate this post... However, what I'm about to tell you is a quintessential Music Geek incident that spans almost 25 years.

A quick history lesson: Vivian Campbell has been guitarist with Def Leppard since 1992 (long after they began to suck), but Old Metalheads still respect him for his 3 year stint with Dio in 1983-86 and for his first band Sweet Savage, who were part of the NWOBHM... What's that... Oh...oh yeah.. Click HERE to find out what the fuck Umlaut is talking about.

Sweet Savage only released one 7" single with Campbell before he left the band (the single featured the song Killing Time, which Metallica covered as a b-side in 1991). Old Metalheads also had the band's demo featuring Campbell, which included a song called Eye Of The Storm. The song was also featured on a 1981 BBC Records compilation album. Long story short, despite a very limited amount of recordings, Campbell was an underground Guitar God back in The Old Metal Days.

The Friday Rock Show compilation album (BBC Records REH426) featuring Vivian Campbell with Sweet Savage:

It's been in the Umlaut Archives since 1982...

Submitted by Tour Manager Doug (TMD):

Green Day went to the VH1 Big In 2005 show last night to win an award. As they were walking down the backstage stairs, Def Leppard were walking up.

Somebody off to the side asked the Leppard guys what they were going to play. Vivian Campbell kiddingly answered that he didn't know but he hoped somebody told him soon.

I told him they should play a Sweet Savage song, maybe Eye Of The Storm.

The look on his face was amazing. Complete shock. He went, "Oh wow! That's a good one" and pointed at me. Full on groupie moment. WE MADE EYE CONTACT. It reminded me of when he came out to the line in Antioch to sign autographs and was bombarded with Sweet Savage questions.

They looked pretty good. I don't know what they played, but I'm confident that it wasn't Eye Of The Storm.

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Umlaut screamed like a little school girl upon reading about this Old Metal close encounter. I live vicariously through TMD's Rock 'N Roll Lifestyle.

The "Antioch" TMD referred to is the Dio show on July 23, 1983 in Antioch, CA. It was the very first show Dio ever played:

Vivian Campbell with Dio @ The Concert Barn
(From the Umlaut Archives)

In a 2003 interview, Ronnie James Dio recalled the Antioch show:

"The first show was at a place called the Concert Barn in Antioch, California," says Ronnie. "I had no idea what to expect. We got there, and it was actually a barn with a dirt floor where they would store cattle. We thought, ‘Oh my God, this is gonna be a nightmare, isn’t it?’ I think the place held 3,000 people and we put 5,000 people in it, broke all their records. It was almost a matter of, ‘So this is going to work.’ That was the first one, and it just went up from there."

Umlaut can name at least 5 or 6 regular readers of this blog who were at The Concert Barn with him, which makes TMD's close encounter with Vivian Campbell all the more awesome. Twenty-three years melted away for a split second there, didn't they? Oh.. sorry.. the rest of you can ignore us while we geek out.

"Reach out your hand, touch me if you can.. I'm running from the eye of the storm..."

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Only around 5 or 6 readers will appreciate all of this babbling about "Vivian Campbell" and "Sweet Savage". Dio's world debut in Antioch was one of those watershed events for Umlaut and many of his friends and the camaraderie that exists is profound.. in a strangely Music Geek way. I love it.

10 bucks
(From the Umlaut Archives)

"No sign of the morning coming, you've been left on your own... like a rainbow in the dark."

Submitted by John Marshall:

Trivia meaningless to anyone but me: Not only was I at the Antioch shows, I was a stagehand there for that whole Summer. So were my two good friends Dan Watson and Bill Peterson, who somehow got their band Paradox to open the Dio and Quiet Riot shows. (Paradox were hard rock with a chick singer, sort of like Pat Benatar. The band is no more, morphing into the thrash band Hexx,then to the rockabilly band The Tombstones.)

If you see an old Metal Church photo, you might see me playing a black Gibson Les Paul. I bought it new in about 1990. The first thing I did when I bought it was remove the pick guard and the chrome pickup covers. Now look at the picture of Vivian Campbell at the Antioch concert.

'Nuff said.

Submitted by Tour Manager Doug:

You're right, 23 years did melt away for a minute (a day?) or two. Closer to 22, actually, but who's counting.

The thing about my little encounter that I enjoy the most, is a parallel to our encounter in Antioch in July 1983. By 'our' I mean Vivian and those of us in the front of the Concert Barn line, a few of whom read Umlaut.

Ronnie James Dio, Vinny Appice and Jimmy Bain who, along with Vivian Campbell, formed the band we were waiting for on that incredibly hot July day (remember the corrugated metal walls?) had more rock experience in their previous month than Vivian Campbell had in his whole life. After 20+ years of touring I think I now know exactly how it was in the dressing room for Vivian. He was completely the odd man out, as Dio, Appice and Bain sat around the deli tray bitching about the craziness of Richie Blackmore, Vivian thought better than to interject his stories about Raymond Haller. As far as the other 3 were concerned, Vivian was about a half a step above a crew guy, and they probably all spent more time drinking with their soundman and monitor guy.

The crew were probably even worse. Many of them being failed musicians who had many years of touring under their belts, not to mention that I'll bet at least a few of them had more music released on vinyl than the 19 or 20-year old guitar player.

So, Vivian wandered out to the line. Nobody in a big time Rock band does that. Maybe after the show, but NEVER before the show.

Remember the look on his face when he got asked about Sweet Savage? It was the same as last night. He lit up. He swaggered backstage in Antioch completely unable to share his experience with anybody, because none of them would have cared. He probably woke up his dad or his girlfriend back in Ireland from the pay phone (because Old Metal predates mobile phones) with a great big grin on his face.

Last night was similar for him, I'll bet. He's no longer the odd man out, completely. He is the new guy, in the same way that Jason Newsted was and Brian Johnson is and will be. His bandmates may, or may not, have heard Sweet Savage stories from him last night. Probably not. But I'll bet he told his wife when he got home, maybe even called her on the mobile. For just a minute, 22 or 23 years melted away for one of our guitar heroes, and that's why I'm grinning as I type this.

By the way, I know there was a pay phone backstage in Antioch because I leaned on it after the show for about an hour when I snuck back there trying to get Dio to sign my 'World Premier' poster, but that's a completely different story. And I'm sure all you Old Metal guys have similar stories.

Submitted by Lauraloha:

HOLD IT ONE MINUTE UMLAUT! Who can rightfully say that they were not only at the Concert Barn in Antioch, but were also born and raised in fucking shithole Antioch and even went on to work for our favorite Umlaut band, METALLICA. That's right baby - Lauraloha that's who. Now the coincidence quotient is getting out of hand here buddy. How many shows did we actually attend together but we had no idea the other existed?

For many years after the Antioch concert, this little ol' redneck metal head actually bragged about being from Antioch. I would actually run around asking people "Do you know the first place Dio every played solo?" just so I could tell them Antioch. Vivian Campbell was a babe, we Antioch girls LOVED him. But then again, we loved Rudy Sarzo. and Phil Kennemore. so who's to say....

Anyway, it's 20 years later and you'd be hard pressed to get the truth out of me anymore, I will not admit I'm from Antioch to just anyone. I say I'm a native San Franciscan. It fits me better. But when you start talking Dio at the Concert Barn, my heart belongs to the Delta.....

Waaaaay back then there was a feathered mullet and some parachute pants with my name on them. Not to mention the Firebird Formula 405.

They closed the Concert Barn not long after that because the drive up Deer Valley Road was a killer. Especially when you were drunk or tripping on acid.

Today Lauraloha lives on an island in the sea and she was visited this very evening by her good friend who wipes Ozzy Osbourne's ass. She makes a good living at it and she is here with the Eagles. The Eagles have never played Antioch, but I bet ya Ozzy would have.

Long live 94509!

Vivian Campbell & Jimmy Bain @ The Concert Barn
(Pic by Big Wayne)

Trivia: Jimmy Bain was in Rainbow and Dio with Ronnie James Dio. In 1978, Bain was also in a sideband with the members of Thin Lizzy and Steve Jones and Paul Cook of the Sex Pistols called The Greedy Bastards (also called The Greedies). They played 1 or 2 shows and recorded a great Christmas song called A Merry Jingle. The song is available on the Rhino Records compilation Punk Rock Xmas.

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Submitted by K.J.

It's amazing how these coincidences occur. But while you're on the subject of SWEET SAVAGE, I can't resist sending a pic of what I found in my garage "Metal Stash" earlier this week.

K.J.'s Sweet Savage 7" single autographed by Vivian Campbell in 1983!

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Umlaut sent the 1983 photo to Vivian Campbell's web site and asked for his reaction to the encounter with Tour Manager Doug. Amazingly, Vivian responded!

VIVIAN: It certainly took me by surprise - not only did he mention Sweet Savage, but this guy actually knew the songs, too! It's an interesting picture of me with my original Les Paul, #72987537. I'm very flattered that people remember Sweet Savage after all these years.

Click HERE to visit Vivian's site and click on the "Ask Viv" section and scroll down. Very cool, innit?!!

You should now listen to Vivian's solo in Dio's Rainbow In The Dark and bang your head.

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Submitted by Anthony.

Back around '90-'91(?) Vivian was in the awful band called Riverdogs. They were playing at Slims. Vivian was signing things for a bunch of fans that were lined up for him... a lot of Dio & Riverdogs stuff. As it was my turn, I shook his hand and told him I had something a little more interesting I wanted him to sign. I pulled out my Sweet Savage single and he went through the roof! He was so stoked! He ran around showing his bandmates "LOOK! I WAS ONLY 17". We ended up talking for awhile.

Vivian & Me with my homemade Angel Witch shirt

He kept saying that it sounded like Metallica, what he meant was, he heard they did a recording of a Sweet Savage song around '82 but he never heard it. As I had a copy of it, I told him I would send him one.

I bumped into Vivian again about a month later and he told me Metallica had asked permission to use a Sweet Savage song as a b-side (Umlaut Music Geek Note: Metallica recorded the Sweet Savage song 'Killing Time'..).

In '99 I got word that Sweet Savage, Blitzkrieg, Raven and others would be playing in New Jersey for the March Metal Meltdown show. I couldn't miss that so I flew out for the show. Sam Kress had given me a letter to give to Brian Ross (Blitzkrieg). Brian was very happy to read it. I bumped into Dave & Ray (Sweet Savage) with Jess Cox (Tygers Of Pan Tang) a short time later. We all ended up hanging out for the next two days. I was in NWOBHM heaven! Hanging out with my Metal heroes!!!

The last night of the show we were in Blitzkrieg's hotel room, I went down the hall to hang with Ray. I knocked on the door and it opened slightly, Ray reaches out, grabs me by my shirt, pulls me into the room and slams & locks the door behind me. I'm standing there looking at him going "WHAT THE HELL???"

He says "Sorry about that, we have food in here" and proceeds to dish me out a plate (It was impossible to find any food to eat nearby, so food was like gold).

L. to R.: Dave, Simon (Sweet Savage), Jess Cox, Ray Haller, and Me

So now, not only was I hanging with my Metal heroes... I was getting fed by them too!